President Donald Trump called for national unity and “bipartisan healing” after what authorities said involved another attempt at him in Washington, with the episode unfolding just before the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. In remarks late Saturday to reporters, Trump said he was “undoubtedly” the target and urged Americans to set aside their differences in a political climate he described as increasingly violent.
The incident occurred when a man with guns and knives tried to rush past the security perimeter inside a Washington hotel where the Republican president was scheduled to address the dinner. Authorities said they were working to determine what happened and why, and a suspect was taken into custody and identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California.
At a hastily organized news conference at the White House late Saturday, Trump said the moment was shocking to him and that “It’s always shocking when something like this happens.” He said it had happened to him “a little bit” before, and that “never changes,” while also describing the presidency as “a dangerous profession.” Trump linked the broader pattern of violence to his political career and to a rise in threats tied to leadership, saying “No country is immune.”
Trump also argued from his own experience that the most impactful figures tend to become targets. He said, “I’ve studied assassinations,” and added that “the most impactful people — the people who do the most, take a look at Abraham Lincoln” — before continuing that “the people that make the biggest impact, they’re the ones that they go after.”
In a more conciliatory posture than his usual tone, Trump said the country must resolve its divisions. He told reporters, “We have to, we have to resolve our differences,” and described a large crowd and a “tremendous amount of love and coming together” at the dinner, citing “Republicans, Democrats, independents, conservatives, liberals and progressives” as those in attendance.
On Sunday, Trump kept the unity message during an interview with Fox News Channel. He described the dinner as an evening “where a lot of people got together,” and said he saw Democrats waving as they left, including politicians and lawmakers. He said he had initially planned to give a sharply critical address, telling Fox, “I was gonna really rip it last night,” but said that after the incident he had wanted to change course toward a “speech of love.”
Trump told Fox that the remarks would have been different, saying he was planning “gonna be much different. It’ll be a speech of love,” but he said he “didn’t get a chance to do that.” He added, “Probably I was better off, if I didn’t. I don’t know,” and later characterized the suspect as “a sick, bad person,” while saying “I hated a guy like this — a sick, bad person — I hated somebody like that changing the course of our country.”
The remarks echoed what Trump has said after earlier incidents involving threats or violence associated with his political campaign. After a 2024 shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which Trump was wounded in the ear and a supporter was killed, Trump appeared at the Republican National Convention two days later and delivered a speech that included calls for healing and unity before he later returned to sharper rhetoric about political opponents. A separate 2024 incident involving Secret Service agents firing at a man armed with a rifle as Trump played golf at a resort club in West Palm Beach, Florida, was followed by Trump’s comments about “radical” Democrats and “left-wing lunatics,” according to the AP account.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche suggested on ABC’s “This Week” that increasingly polarizing rhetoric played a role in the volume of violent incidents targeting Trump and his Cabinet. Blanche said, “There have been threats against leadership for a very long time. Years and years and years. That’s not new,” but added, “There is something unique about the threats against President Trump and his Cabinet that is disgusting.”
Unlike earlier incidents described by the AP, the most recent one occurred with Melania Trump by Trump’s side. Trump said on Sunday that his wife “was doing great,” and he described the previous evening as traumatic but with awareness, saying, “I think she knew immediately,” that she was “saying ‘It’s a bad noise,’” and that “It was a rather traumatic experience for her.”
In a separate development, Buckingham Palace said the upcoming state visit by King Charles III would proceed as planned despite the security incident near the correspondents’ dinner. The palace said the United States trip was confirmed after discussions between American and British officials and “acting on advice of government,” with Charles and Queen Camilla scheduled to begin a four-day visit on Monday, with tea with Trump and Melania Trump.